Greg Koukl and Amber discuss questions to ask when discussing your Christian convictions, adopting a gardener versus harvester mentality, and engaging in friendly faith conversations.

Questions Greg and Amber Discuss:

1. (6:53) Share a little of your faith journey with us.  When did you come to know Jesus?
2. (11:35) Time and time again I have heard, how do I discuss my Christian beliefs without sounding like a jerk or arrogant or close minded?  You published the book, “Tactics” that serves to help answer this very question, but I want to hear your reason for writing the book.
3. I want listeners to get a taste for using The Columbo Tactic when communicating their Christian convictions.  Will you give us an overview and the benefits of taking the time to practice it?
4. (42:47) Tina Wilson asked, “How would you recommend we speak to the statement, you do you and let me do me?”
5. (49:15) Lee Ann Mancini asked, “More than ever, moral ethics is determined by what one believes to be true, even if the facts prove otherwise. What can we do to prepare our children to face the anti-Christian humanistic culture we live in?”
6. (58:58) After all your years of teaching Christians how to engage in friendly conversations about Jesus, what are the most important things you’ve learned?

Quotes to Remember:

“[Tactics to ] allow Christians to get involved in productive conversations that look more like diplomacy than D day.”

“The goal of the tactical game plan is to stay in the driver’s seat. You can guide the conversation in the direction you think is more profitable. How do you do that?… You don’t overpower them with your conversation…. [You] ask questions.”

“I’m going to ask questions about their view and that’s going to help me advance my view.”

“When you ask questions, you are not making statements. If you’re not making statements, you have nothing to defend, but that doesn’t mean you’re not making an impact.”

“There’s no altar calls in the New Testament, there’s gardening. So simply put, I don’t want people to worry about harvesting.”

“We get to garden garden garden garden garden and if somebody else does the harvesting, who cares? The sower and the reaper rejoice together. That’s what Jesus said in John 4.”

“Ask our model question, what do you mean by that?….Always ask for more information….It’s going to force a person to be more clear about their own point and many times, they’re going to struggle.”

“The rule about burden of proof is the main person who makes the claim, bears the burden of proof. So it is not up to the Christian to disprove the other person’s claim. It is up to the other person to give reasons why we should take their claim seriously.”

“Any Christian who doesn’t want to make the non Christian feel uncomfortable, is not willing to do what Jesus did. You don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable because of the nasty way you’re acting. You want them to feel uncomfortable with the false hood they’re believing.”

“What the culture is saying is you do you as long as it doesn’t hurt me doing me.”

“You have to be in your Bibles even a little bit every day….You have to have God tell you what reality is like, because there are other disciplers out there that are telling you lies and they’re very persuasive. And one of the lies is follow your heart.”

“It’s the same words as God’s word, but it’s a different meaning than God intended. And when it’s a different meaning, it is no longer God’s word.”

“But the question was, how do we protect our kids from the from the lies of the culture? They have to be firmly rooted in the objective truth, not in their subjective sense of closeness to Christ.”

“Even our emotional sense of closeness to God has to be theologically informed…”

“What Christians are going to find out is if they are faithful to Christ, just as Paul said, ‘All who desire to live godly in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution.’ This is happening now. In our country, many have dodged the bullet, and many are dodging the bullet because they’re not being faithful to Christ.”

“They’re being more faithful to their friends, than they are to Christ.”

Scripture References

• 2 Cor. 5:20 Christ’s ambassadors
• 1 Peter 3
• 2 Tim. 2
• John 4
• Mark 15

Resources Mentioned:

• Stand to Reason
• Book: Tactics by Greg Koukl
• Book: Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace
• Book: Cold Case Christianity for Kids by J. Warner Wallace
• Book: Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace
• Book: Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyon

Related Episodes:

• 123: Rebecca Pippert | Share the Faith You Live
• 96: Alisa Childers | Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity
• 90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer | Empowering Kids To Challenge Cultural Lies
• 99: Jen Wilkin | Women of the Word
• 76: Rosaria Butterfield | Radical Hospitality {Part 1}
• 77: Rosaria Butterfield | Radical Hospitality {Part 2}